Man Arrested For Allegedly Beating Puppy To Death

Brutally beaten, killed and dumped in the trash. Las Cruces police arrested Richard McCord, 41, for extreme animal cruelty after he allegedly tortured his own dog to death.

Neighbors told ABC-7?s New Mexico Mobile Newsroom McCord had only lived in an apartment complex off Parkview Drive for a few days, but said they did not think anyone was capable of doing something this horrific.

“He hung the dog, and they caught the evidence of the harness still being on top of the roof and there was blood still on the floor,? a witness, who asked not to be identified, said. ?He kicked the dog for ten minutes outside until the dog died.?

A witness described what McCord said he did to his 4-month-old Border Collie mix.

“His shirt was like full of blood, and his pants and his hands were full of blood,” the witness said. ?He kept on saying he, ?hates the dog? and he’s, ?glad it’s dead.?”

McCord beat Jasmine against a shed next to his apartment Saturday, witnesses said. He repeatedly kicked the puppy until she stopped yelping, and killed the dog by stepping on her neck for several minutes, police said. McCord then wrapped the dog?s body in a rug and threw her in a dumpster outside his apartment.

“It’s heart breaking,? the witness said. ?For a man to just come over here, step on a dog’s neck and step on it like that, it’s pretty harsh.”

Witnesses said McCord acted like nothing was wrong moments after he allegedly killed his dog.

“I think it was shocking to all of us that anybody could do that to a defenseless little dog,” Jo Ortega, who lives nearby, said. ?You never look at somebody and think they would do that to a poor little dog ? it?s sickening.?

McCord is charged with one count of extreme animal cruelty, a fourth-degree felony. But police said punishment for someone capable of this kind of violence should be more severe.

“Somebody who does this to an animal quite possibly could do it to a human being,” Dan Trujillo, spokesperson for the Las Cruces Police Department, said.

“I think that’s how it starts,? a witness said. ?You kill a bird, then a dog, then a person and it goes higher and higher?next thing you know you’re a serial killer.”

McCord initially told investigators a car hit the puppy, police said.

McCord is being held on $5,000 bond at the Dona Ana County Detention Center.